Continuing where we left off yesterday, we are now back on the first team page where we can get a glimpse of our 25 man squadas well as the other items on this page. Lets go over each item since they all play an important role in assembling your best team.
NATIONALITY
This might seem a lil cuckoo, but here me out. When choosing the players within your squad, there are two things to take into consideration: 1) The nation you are managing in and 2) the nationality of your best players. Where you are currently mabaging should be an indicator that you must have at least 8 players within your first team who are from that nation ( 8 Germans if you are managing in the Bundesliga; 8 Spaniards if you are managing in La liga, for example). We have to do this because it allows the club to stay true to the culture of the playing styles of each nation. Secondly, you want to allow your best players to have teammates who are from the same country or culture as them since it helps them perform better on the pitch knowing they have companions who make them feel at home off the pitch.
These are not things that you will find in soccermanager forums or other soccermanager content on the internet or on social media, but they are the ‘unwritten rules’ of having players with different nationalities within your club and must be abided by in order to get the best out of each player.
RATING
Of course, the higher your player’s rating, the better their performance will be. But, there are methods to also get a tune out of lower rated players (think 75 or lower), and it all boils down to those sweet tactics of yours.
POTENTIAL
This is simply an indication of where a player is currently at in his career. Younger players (between 15-24) will have a potential rating adjustment based on how they perform within the game. Peak/Prime players (aged 25-31) will have a yellow arrow next to their potential as an indicator that he has reached his “best potential” and will not increase in rating. Players in decline (32+) will have a red colored arrow indicating that they are on the wrong end of their career, but do not be mislead by believing that they are automatic sells since these players bring the all to important experience of being seasoned pros who can be a guidance to the more younger players on and off the pitch.
INFO
Before getting to your starting X1, you have to check out any players within your 25 who are on loan from another club or any player who has a concern and is therefore “unhappy”. Players that are on loan from another club should be challenging for a spot in the starting X1, so I advise that you consider making space to give them at least 30 matches throughout the season. Unhappy players, unlike in soccermanager worlds, will have a negative impact on the rest of the team in SM23 since they can impact the morale of other players with their negativity (again, this is rare info about the thought process of professional soccer players that you will only find on this blog).
VALUE
Player values are all about how much a player is believed to be worth and it is important that you do not allow other clubs to short change you when it comes to selling certain players as you’ll be doing your club a disservice.
FITNESS
Now, the fitness of a player within SM23 is compleltely different from the fitness of players in SM Worlds since players in the latter can still play matches even if they’re fitness level is 50% or lower (which is ridiculous). In order to avoid having a lot of injuries, you must manage player’s game time to the best of your ability. There are some players whom you can still start even when they’re not considered “match fit” (which is a fitness level of 90% or higher) but you must take into consideration the player’s work rate and stamina attribute, as well as their injury history for the season. The good news is that after each match you will be notified by your Head Physio about players whom he believes should be given a rest. This notification can be found within your inbox.
MORALE
In my opinion, alongside chemistry, a player’s morale is one of the biggest indicators of performance that has nothing to do with their ability as a footballer. The morale of a player simply indicates the current mental and emotional state of the player in question. Each player can feel 1 of 6 different states of morale within SM23 and they are 1. Excellent / Superb (player will play beyond his expectations) 2. Very good (player is in a good space and will generally perform well) 3. Good (player is performing alright and only needs a run of top performances for his morale to increase) 4. Okay (player is indifferent and tends to perform decent without ever doing anything spectacular 5. Poor (Player is out of form and is now playing without any confidence in his ability) 6. Very poor (Player is now considered a ‘rotten egg’ and now has the potential to impact the morale of his teammates negatively).
Some of the things that affect a player’s morale are things such as playing a decent amount of matches in a row, directly impacting a match (goals, assists, saves, tackles etc.), having a run of poor performances, and lack of game time.
CHEMISTRY
Like I just mentioned above, chemistry is a very important factor into how a player will perform on the pitch. It’s a buzz word that generally gets used a lot in sport but most people don’t actually understand what it means. Basically, chemistry (in sport) is the ability of a group of players to fully have an unconscious apprehension of what their teammates will be doing at all times. In SM23, there are 3 different levels of chemistry for first team players: 1. 90-100 (player fits the team perfectly and will grasp your tactics well) 2. 80-90 (players will generally perform well but will at times display a lack of cohesion with the rest of the group) 3. 60-80 (players are either mavericks, meaning that they’re not able to read their teammates well but are so good that their ability allows them to have an impact, or they simply do not fit your team and will perform poorly for the majority of game time given.
Since the 90-100’s are guaranteed players who will perform well for you, it’s imperative that you do your research on the 60-90’s since they will need to have the attributes necessary to the way in which you want them to play within your team. If you’re uncertain how all of this works, then check out season 4 episodes on my blog where we’ve explained how ‘player attributes’ work within SM23, plus many more things that will make your playing time of this game more eventful.
VIEWS
At the top of the first team squad page( just beneath the ‘continue’ button) you can change the viewing on the screen from ‘general’ to ‘stats’, or ‘contract,. General is the page which you will automatically see once you’re on the squad page and is where you can find all the info I explained above. Stats are pretty self explanatory, but it is where you can find each player’s appearances, goals, assists, man of the matches, average performance (a tally of the match ratings throughout the season), and yellow and red card tallies. Contract is where you are able to check out a player’s weekly wages, squad satus, contract expiry, and the date in which each contract will expire. Be careful not to sign too many players with high wages since it will negatively impact your club’s balance sheet which could see the transfer and upgrade budgets decrease rapidly.
Let’s end it here for today, lads. Thank you as always for blessing me with your time and we’ll be back here tomorrow as we continue to breakdown the Squad page into as much detail as we possibly can. 🤙
The Soccermanager Experience 